Car-door.



F. J. GILROY.

CAR DOOR. APPLICATION FILED DEC-27. 1912.

' Patented May 23,1916.

wwm' am F. J. GILROY.

Patented May 23,1916.

2 T E E H 4 s T E E H s 2 Tm: COLUMBIA PLANOURAPH cm, WASHINGTON. D. C.

FRANK J. GILROY, 0E BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

can-noon.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 23, 1916.

Application filed December 27, 1912. Serial No. 738,865.

To all whom it may concern Be itknown that I, FRANK J. GrLRoY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bufialo, in the county of Erie and State of New York,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Car-Doors, of which opened when unlocked, readily applied, at

low cost, to old cars, substantially weatherproof, practically secure against moving outward into position for injuring cars on adjacent tracks as-ordinary doors often do under injuries incident to service, and which are themselves nearly indestructible.

In general, the several advantages are secured by providing for the lower portion of the door opening a sliding door of metalor wood having its lower and lateral margins engaged throughout, when closed, with continuous flanges on the car, closing the upper portion of the opening, which in grain cars may be considered a loading opening, by a distinct lighter door, or doors, supporting the lower door on a track below the door opening, and providing at the upper margins of the doors devices for excluding rain and the like. The lower doors are strong enough to resist outward pressure of any permissible load which, ordinarily, is below their upper margins, and the upper, doors are locked by devices operable only from within the car.

Many of the objects above set forth, and especially eliminating coopering or interior boarding crossing the door opening,

have long been recognized as of great im portance, and numerous devices, patented and unpatented, have been suggested, but, so far as I am aware, no such devices have been extensively and permanently adopted in practical use. In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a side elevation of a portion ofa car provided with my devices. Fig. 2 is a section on the'line 2-2, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an enlarged, view similar to Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a section on the line 44, Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a section on the line 55, Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a corner portion of the main door and metal member to be secured thereto. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a catch for the main door. Fig. 8 is a vertical section through one end of the top of the car, showing a ventilator.

In these figures, :A represents the sheathmg or external boards of a car, B the sill, C the floor, D door posts, E the car frame above the door opening, and F a horizontal beamsubstantially as rigid as the belt rail in resisting transverse horizontal strains, and spanning that opening at the upper margin of a lower main door the body of which is shown as a single metal sheet G, usually of steel, bent at its lower, right hand and upper margins to form inwardly turned hooks G, G G The left hand margin or side toward which the door moves in closing and hereinafter referred to as the forward margin is reinforced by a vertical- T-b'ar H having one margin flush with the margin of the sheet and, like it, beveled to fit against the inclined middle member of a sort of Z-bar H bolted through the door post and having a lip covering the margin of the closed door. The hook G engages, and covers when the door is closed, a flange of a member H secured to the car by bolts while the hook G similarly engages, when the door is closed, a concealed flange H fixed to the car. The upper edge of the door fits, and slides above, a shoulder X on the bar F and within a lip I of a member I, which is fixed to thecar and has its upper margin bent outward and downward to be engaged by a hook-like flange of the upper door. The bar F at the upper edge of the main door, must be rigid so that no load pressure on the door'can cause material de-; flection to interfere with'proper sliding. It is desirable that the shoulder or flange, on this bar, which supports the main door in case the rollers are removed, should be hooklike, as shown in Fig. 2, sinceotherwise only the flange I can be relied upon to prevent the door from moving outward from the car wall. The lower door is further reinforced by a horizontal T-beam Y, near its secured a plate J, which may be of mallelower margin of this door is provided with rollers K resting upon a track K which may be an upturned hook integral with the member H The flange H does not extend much beyond the right hand side of the door opening, but the'member H and track flange are carried onward as a trough-like member bolted to the car and having at shortintervals holes K in its bottom to allow the escapeof water and to serve for holding the end of a steel bar or lever passed through the link J and used for compelling opening movement of the door. A steel sheet used in such a door must be thin or the door is of no practical value since either its cost or its weight would bar its use. When thin, it is still practically useless without some expedient for keeping its marginal portions in a plane and for preventing its bellying and drawings its edges out of line, causing binding. For this purpose, the T- bar is fixed across its middle'portion and its I marginal portions are doubled back to form on eachof three sides a continuous hooked flange, while a T-bar is secured along its fourth side. This latter bar, like the hooked flanges, serves additional purposes. Were these stiffening parts not continuous, 0b-

.points,

viously they would not have the same stiifening elfect, and further, the marginal portions might be more readily bent at certain causing leakage and binding. Although the sheet is thin and light in weight, its margins are thus all practically rigidly rectilinear, resisting bending of the peripheral lines in their plane or from that plane; and at the same time these portions,

- along the hooked edges, cover and protect the parts by which they are held to the car, at every point, quite independently of the rollers. Incidentally, the direct engagement of the door with the car saves the rollers from strains due to the pressure of the load, leaving them only the duty of supporting the doors weight. The result is that under ordinary service conditions the door does not materially change in form or position and is'always readily worked, and further, that at scarcely greater cost than that of a common wooden door, all the advantages set forth at the outset are obtained;

The upper door L is of thinner sheet steel and may be, asshown, a single sheet having its lower margin bent into a hook L engaging the hooked upper: portion or flange of the member I, which like the track, above described, is extended to the right of the door opening and bolted to the car wall. The upper and right hand margins of this door are in like hooked engagement with members L bolted to the car, while its left hand edge passes, like the larger door within the lip of a sort of Z-bar L The upper edge of this loading door is protected from rain by an inclined member L secured to the car. This smaller door is usually secured by automatically engaging devices L accessible only from the interior of the car, so that, the lower door being closed and the upper door open, the car may be loaded with granular material to the proper height,- never above the lower door,-and upon the closing of the upper or loading door, it can be opened only by opening the lower door, which is secured by devices not in question. For sampling the contents, however, the upper door is provided with one or more small apertures normally closed by a screw plug M. The main door is provided with a hasp P which engages a rounded and perforated catch 0 forming the head of a bolt, and when the door is fully closed a seal may be secured in the perforation.

The car as thus far described is nearly airtight when closed, and since ventilation is desirable where certain materials,e. 9., new corn-form the load, the car is provided at both ends with an angnlarly bent open pipe N which projects from the car'and opens downwardlyjust below the projecting foot-board running along the middle of the cars roof. This pipe practically excludes rain yet when the car is running, the pressure of the air between the cars is such that there is in front a current into the car and at the rear a corresponding outward current. Obviously, were the track torn from the car the closed door could not move downward, nor, while closed, disengage any of the flanges around the door opening, and as plainly outward pressure of the load upon the door only presses the engaging flanges into still firmer contact, so that nothing can escape through crevices.

I prefer to make the body of the main door of sheet steel, as described, but wood doors already in use may have their margins provided with hooked flanges analogous to those described. It is ofimportance that the main door is not of usual height, although doors are open, and further, that the door cannot be sealed until fully closed, the hasp thus guarding against incomplete closure. Inordinary grain cars, boards are nailed upon the inner faces of the door posts and the space between these boards and the doors is not' available, while in the cars herein set forth grain occupies that space. In baggage cars,-also, which must be opened now onone side now on the other, baggage for delivery at the next stop is piled on the proper side of the car, and the certainty that nothing thrown against the door can possibly force it outward, is of importance.

lVhat I claim is: I

1. A sliding car door of thin sheet meta having each of its four margins provided with reinforcement resisting deflection in any direction, in combination with a horizontal bar, substantially as rigid as the belt rail, extending across the door, opening above the usual load line, the lateral and lower margins of the door being adapted to engage at substantially all points with flanges fixed to the car along corresponding sides of the door opening; whereby the door may securely close the door opening and be incapable of binding by deflections of its margins under pressure on its body.

2. The combination with a thin sheet metal door having each margin provided with reinforcement adequate for preventing its material deflection from its normal line, of a reinforcing bar crossing centrally the body of the door, tying together its opposite margins and holding its central portion in its normal plane, a track below the door, and

rollers running on said track and normally supporting the weight of the door the lower and lateral margins of the door being each adapted to engage, substantially throughout their length, under a corresponding flange fixed to the car alongside the door opening and the upper margin bearing a flange adapted to engage a corresponding flange fixed to the car, should the door descend even slightly, whereby a thin metal door securely closes the opening against the escape of even pulverulent material and is incapable of binding through deflection of its margins under pressure of the load upon its normally flexible body or of dropping i case the rollers are removed.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FRANK J. GILROY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

